BigTerp's Tracker Sportsman 16' O/B Jet build

[BigTerp]

chevyrulz » Today, 4:59 pm[/url]"]looks good man, I like your jack plate :wink:

Thanks man!!! Pretty simple design. Was a bit of a pain fabricating, but it works really well and is extremely stout.

 

[BigTerp]

CLOGGED JETS!!!!! We tore apart the carbs on Saturday and the jets were nasty as hell, especially the lower carb. I guess we neglected to fully inspect/clean each one when doing the rebuild. I know we cleaned the carbs, but must have overlooked the jets, or had a few to many beers that particular day My buddy took the boat out on Sunday and said it ran like a top!! Got 20mph's out of it with him and a passenger. I was expecting closer to mid 20's, but that will certainly do. Going to finally have the chance to take it out tonight to see for myself how it runs and do any fine tunning that may be needed. Pretty excited

 

[BigTerp]

Had her out last night and I am more than happy!! Motor ran great with zero issues. Got 26.3mph up river with just me and no gear in the boat. Quite the improvement from the 5-6mph I was getting with my grandfathers 1965 Johnson 5hp. Boat planes easily and stays on plane down to a little under 3/4 throttle. Thing is a pig on gas though. I ran it for about an hour trying to vary the throttle and rpms and not stay at WOT for too long, which was hard to do, as part of the break in process. Used about 2 gallons of gas. Going to take some getting used to how a jet powered boat handles, but I like the way it slides while turning. Looking forward to taking her out again to progress with the break in period.

 

[BigTerp]

Haven't had the chance to take her back out due to it raining for the past 4 or 5 straight days. I'll be duck hunting this Saturday, so that'll be the next chance I get to take her out.

With all my excitement of the jet, I forgot to mention I got a bow mount, foot controlled trolling motor installed. It's an old Tracker Pro Guide Series 41. But it works well on the boat. I'll try and grab some pictures.

 

[BigTerp]

Got a few pics of my trolling motor setup. I played around with several different ways to mount it and ending up mouting it length wise on the bow from starboard to port. Mounting it along either the port or starboard sides would interfere with the captain and controls to much. Other than being a bit of a hazard when boarding/unboarding the boat from the bow, it works good where it's at. We installed it with rivit nuts so it can easily be removed when needed. Also installed an Attwood TM plug. You should be able to see in one of the pictures on the foot pedal there is a switch for 12V or 24V. We rewired this an installed a new switch that when on 12V it runs when you have your foot on the "throttle". When it's on 24V the "throttle" acts as an on/off switch so you can run it constant without having to keep your foot on the pedal.

Attwood plug. TM is routed to the port side battery. Only other thing hooked up to this battery is the 12V accessory plug located in the rear bench which is used primarily for a spotlight while running to hunting spots early in the morning.

 

[BigTerp]

Got my transom riser primed last night. Planning on painting it to match the boat this evening. Can't have all that shiny aluminum showing while duck hunting. Also should make it easier to see any cracks or voids in the riser, if it were ever to get any.

 

[Ranchero50]

Looks good, going to be interesting running it Saturday. Hopefully the brown water will be down so you're not tying off to tree branches

 

[BigTerp]

Ranchero50 » 11 minutes ago[/url]"]Looks good, going to be interesting running it Saturday. Hopefully the brown water will be down so you're not tying off to tree branches

Thanks man. Those TM props are tough. I have the bruise/welt/cut on my right shin to prove it. Slipped while pushing the boat from shore last week when I had it out and smashed shin right on the prop. Would be nice if I could have mounted it to either side.

River is surprisingly only at 3.6 this morning. Looks to have dropped some from last night as well. I thought it'd be well over 4 feet with all the rain. Guess the ground was pretty dry and soaked most of it up. I'll take the higher/muddy water over all the green crap when the water is down (for hunting anyway). All the green stuff seems to seek out my jet foot and plug it up constantly.

 

[Ranchero50]

Yes, welcome to OB jetting at its best. At least you can tilt the engine and rake out the foot.

Mine does the same darned thing unless I can get it on plane, then it's moving too fast to make salads.

 

[BigTerp]

Ranchero50 » October 16th, 2013, 8:24 am[/url]"]Yes, welcome to OB jetting at its best. At least you can tilt the engine and rake out the foot.

Mine does the same darned thing unless I can get it on plane, then it's moving too fast to make salads.

River was much better over the weekend in terms of grass. Got to run through the shallows for the first time with the setup. Went from the island right below the dam down past the tressels and back without hitting once. I'm impressed with how shallow it runs!! Boat and motor seems to be setup perfect. Had a few hiccups though. Needle valve on the bottom carb was stuck first thing Saturday morning. We un stuck it after we got done hunting, and it ran fine. Ordered new needle valves for both carbs anyway.

We took her out again yesterday and went from fourlocks almost to Hancock. We got up to about Little Pool and turned around to make sure we had enough gas. Burned through about 8 gallons. Thing is a hog on gas. Man was that fun!! It's a little scary at first when your running full throttle through about 5" of water and then have to quickly pick a line through the riffles with rocks sitcking up seemingly everywhere.. Only hit twice, and both were glancing blows to the jet foot. I got a pretty good feel for reading the river and picking my lines.

Cam in my NOS OMC control box broke a tooth. Caused it to skip a gear and get locked in neutral. We tore it apart and put it back on track but couldn't use reverse unless we wanted to lock it up again. I think my gate cable is bad/stiff. The gate also doesn't like to fully open. Thinking I need new cables. Only thing I can think of that would be causing both issues. I have another pair that I'll compare to whats on the boat now. If there stiff as well, Looks like I"ll be ordering new cables.

Anyway to test my cables to see if they are bad? Can you lube control cables to lossen them up anyway? The handle on my control box is pretty stiff going from neutral to forward and reverse. Once it gets into "gear" it loosens up. Making me think my throttle cable is ok, just the "gear" cable I need to address.

 

[JoshKeller]

pretty sure i have a set of cables in my garage if you need them.

 

[BigTerp]

Definitely bad cables!! Tore apart my control box last night, unhooked my cables and tested them. Throttle cable is nice and smooth and moves freely. Gate/gear cable is super tight and takes a good bit of force to move in and out. I have an extra cable at my buddies that I'll check out. Hopefully it's ok so I can just swap it out for the bad one.

 

[BigTerp]

Got a few things done to the boat over the weekend to get her ready for fishing now that the weather FINALLY seems like it's going to break. Once we got the motor issues figured out this past fall, we haven't had any issues with the boat and motor all winter. I'd guess we had her out over a dozen times over the winter waterfowl hunting. Everything seems setup just right for the way we use the boat. Glad I was patient in deciding exactly how I wanted everything setup. Hopefully everything continues to run well. Havne't had her out in almost 2 months due to the crappy weather we've been having. Missed the final month or so of waterfowl season due to either snow, ice or dangerous river conditions.

Got an extra seat and 2 13" pedestal for the rear bench and front deck. Front deck is WAY to flimsly though. Need to figure out a way to reinforce the stock aluminum deck and or seat base before it gets used. Any suggestions?

Here is the front deck base. It sits on the factory deck which is rather thin aluminum. It flexes ALOT from bow to stern with the seat and pedestal installed. Any suggestions on how I can reinforce before I rip up my bow deck?

Ordered a heavy duty tarp of Ebay last fall to use as a cover. It's OK for $30, but I've already had to tape up a few tears with some gorrilla tape. Worked pretty good with all the snow and ice we had over the winter, so I guess I really can't complain. Here is how I support my cover. 2 small sawhorses, a long 2x4, bucket and bungee straps.

Cover on

Made some rodholders out of PVC. I have a grip type additive on my floor and deck paint. I was afraid it would tear up my rods and reels so decided some rodholers were in order. Used 1-1/4" PVC for about $4.50 for 10'. Only used 4' of it though. Probably use the rest to make a rodholder stand for my rec room. I thought they turned out nicely.

I have 4 rodholders coming from https://www.metalrodholders.com/. Once I get those installed the only thing left to do is fabricate and install a stern deck. Then I think I can finally call her finished.

 

[panFried]

Looking good Terp! Just in time as weather seems to be breaking finally. Whats with the basket ball? Is that a cover/protector? Reminds me of the old folks with tennis balls on their walkers or hitch ball covers.

 

[BigTerp]

panFried » 30 minutes ago[/url]"]Looking good Terp! Just in time as weather seems to be breaking finally. Whats with the basket ball? Is that a cover/protector? Reminds me of the old folks with tennis balls on their walkers or hitch ball covers.

Thanks man!!

Yes, the basketball is to protect the cover. Since it's not custom fit, depending on how the cover falls when I put it on, it sometimes is over the wench bracket which could easily tear right through my cover.

 

[BigTerp]

Installed a set of driving lights on my boat last fall. Started a thread on it, but figured it should go here as well.

Needed to add some sort of driving lights to my boat. I run pretty shallow areas of the local river and really needed some extra light when heading to hunting spots before dawn. A hand held spotlight wasn't nearly enough and made me really uncomfortable when running the sketchy areas. I ended up following a thread on another site that took a halogen off road light and converted it to HID. I ended up converting a pair into 35 watt HID. Here are the lights I used.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029ZCEEY/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used Xenon HID conversion kits for both that I got off of ebay. Here are some pictures of the project.

Had to add another switch since all the ones on my control panel were taken up.

Here they are lit up at night. I'm VERY impressed with the amount of light they put out. Can't wait to see how well they work on the water once dialed in.

 

[alanbird_87]

Hi, great looking boat. I really like the aluminum floor. I was wondering if you attached the forward floor to aluminum angle and if so how did you?

 

[BigTerp]

Thanks man!!

Yes, the bow end of my floor is attached to a piece of angle with rivets. Here are some good pictures of how I did it.

https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=26774&start=180

 

[BigTerp]

Here is a short video my wife shot yesterday of me coming out of a small, narrow creek into the main river. For those of you familiar with my area, it is Tonoloway Creek on the east side of Hancock. The video is a little goofy and looks a little better if you go full screen. My wife shot it with my phone vertical instead of horizontal. Makes it a little weird, but shows pretty good how well the boat/motor combo runs and how shallow I'm able to go. We caught zero fish by the way

[youtube]s_ZOPjJcdVs[/youtube]

 

[panFried]

Very nice!!!